CONTEXT We are 5 European schools which want to join our efforts to increase the students’ knowledge and interest in subjects related to the cultural heritage of our countries – Geography, History. Moreover, in a world touched by globalisation in which individuals have a tendency to overlook their own national heritage, we need our students to go back to their own roots by knowing the customs and traditions which have been passed on from generation to generation. We are of the opinion that if you don’t know your roots, you don’t know your foundation and if you don’t know your foundation, you can never thrive. Therefore, we want to cultivate our students’ patriotic feelings, making them look back to their past and their origins, while at the same time opening their horizons to other cultures and their specificities. PARTICIPANTS Students – the target group is made up of approximately 1000 students aged 12-14, 100 of them having special education needs. 150-200 of them will be selected as members of the work group (minimum 30 / country, but the number may vary according to the size of the target group up to 40). They will be at the core of our project, will be involved in the activities of preparation before the exchanges, 100 of them will participate in the activities during exchanges, will disseminate the information to the other members of the target group after the exchanges. Accompanying teachers – 2 teachers/country/exchange. One of them will be the coordinator, while the other one will be a History/Geography/Literature/Arts/IT teacher OBJECTIVES The main purpose of the project is to increase the cultural and intercultural awareness of all the actors involved in its implementation. However, being specifically targeted to students, we have set the following objectives for them: OS1. To increase the cultural awareness of at least 80% of students, making them more knowledgeable about the history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music OS2. To increase intercultural awareness and competence of all the students, making them more knowledgeable about the other European countries, history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music. OS3 To improve students’ ICT skills by having them use mobile applications and online tools for presentations, activities, evaluation, creation of outputs OS4 To improve students’ transferrable skills – communication, research and analysis, team work, adaptability, organisation OS5 To improve students’ motivation for learning and self-confidence At the level of the institutions, our objectives are: 1. To improve the European dimension and international cooperation 2. To motivate teachers 3. To improve the communication and cooperation among all school actors MAIN ACTIVITIES We plan to organize 5 exchanges, each dedicated and hosted by each partner: 1. C1 - The French heritage – hosted by France in February 2021
2. C2 – The Greek Heritage – hosted by GR in May 2021 3. C3 – The Romanian Heritage – October 2021 4. C4 – The Turkish Heritage – March 2022 5. C5 – The Polish Heritage – June 2022 RESULTS Tangible results include: presentations created by students (30), workshop materials, online brochures (5), the final output “The European heritage”, guest students’ travel journals (80), the eTwinning space, eTwinning forum, photo albums (5), Europass mobility documents (112), certificates of attendance (112) initial and final evaluation forms, mobility documents (agenda, methodology, questionnaires, evaluation forms) etc. IMPACT The institutions will benefit from the good practices acquired and transferred through the participation of students and teachers in the exchanges. They will promote intercultural learning and will open to new models that will benefit the students in the medium and long run, too. We will develop the European dimension of the school and will be better prepared to manage projects under the Erasmus+ programme – both the experienced schools and the less experienced ones. This project will lay the foundation for future cooperation among schools through eTwinning and Erasmus+.

The project ‘In the Paradise Garden of Europe’ is aimed at the pupils, also the disabled , the teachers from European schools and the local communities connected with them. The tasks are adjusted to their needs and possibilities .A subject of this enterprise is to get familiar and show the unknown places of special natural ,illuminating and educational values- enchanting ,reputable not placed in the guide books areas- the partners Small Homelands. ’Paradise Garden of Europe’- it is for us a small area of primeval nature with its richness of flora and fauna, often not really know, a safe diverse and ideal place to reach the life goals, without communication and cultural barriers. We want the project participants to show their creativity and creative interpretation in this field. Each of the partner will get familiar with its ‘paradise garden’ and then will demonstrate it to the rest of the participants. We will mutually create a notion about ‘Paradise Garden of Europe’, which will be a summary of our activity. A jointly done poster ‘Paradise Garden of Europe’ will come into being. It will include students’ diverse products depicting ‘paradise nooks’-discovered, known and creatively interpreted by the students. We will hand over a message:’ Save it to the future generations’. We will focus on discovering and getting familiar with those places as well as showing them to the project participants. They will be presented to the communities in the project countries. We will carry out educational lessons with a participation of the teachers and students from the partner countries. The teachers will exchange their experiences, will prepare innovative, lesson summaries which will be mutually carried out. They will improve their English skills thanks to a language course organized within a framework of the project. Art- literary competitions, vernissages, happenings ,educational projects, debates, will be held in order to get information relating to the places and their role in the life of local communities. We will promote those places by preparing environmental publications. We will get acquitted with our paradise gardens in a multi –sensory way depicting European natural landscapes, we will show a mutual dependence of a human being and the Nature. The participants will also get to know the most outstanding artistic, musical and literary works referring to Nature beauty. We will use art to express ourselves emotionally. We will aspire to develop abilities to express and recognize emotions by organizing classes in interpersonal communication and socially – minded conduct development. The project goals are: developing cooperation between the project schools, enriching teaching and innovative skills, arousing curiosity, getting to know the surrounding world, shaping activeness conduct, developing language , interpersonal, communication, ITC skills, getting to know the natural and cultural diversity, shaping ecological conduct, create a sense of being an European citizen, shaping empathy ,respect, tolerance and acceptance of cultural dissimilarity conduct, developing key skills. They will be achieved by means of innovative and active methods such as: a work group, project realizations, a brainstorm, mental maps, decision trees and others. Elements of social therapy, art therapy and multi-sensory getting to know the world will be introduced to the project. Nine countries have been involved in the project. These are primary schools, high junior schools and a vocational school from Poland, Latvia, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Greece and Romania. The students of the partner schools and their teachers will be main beneficiaries and performers of the project. The effects of the students and their teachers will be shown with participation of parents, local and education authorities as well as mass media. The Internet data base will be prepared and it will serve to disseminate the project results among Internet users. The final products performed and collected in school libraries, on educational webpages, disseminated among teachers in other schools and pedagogy students will serve them to enrich an educational base, to develop a general knowledge about the project countries. The students will establish individual contacts with their project peers and will continue doing them after the project is over. The teachers and the students via mutual contacts will get to know a specificity of educational systems in the countries and the knowledge they will acquire will transfer onto own ground. Due to it they will improve a teaching –learning process in the project countries. The paradise nooks, which we will discover due to the project will broaden horizon, enrich our knowledge about Europe. Owing to the contacts with other countries, we will take advantage of the experience of these countries in the field of psychological-educational assistance.